This Year, Make Your Own Festivus Pole

Let’s make a Festivus pole.

We’ll be recreating the classic model: an unadorned aluminum tube mounted on a simple wood base. Introduced to the world in the December 1997 “Seinfeld” episode titled “The Strike,” the Festivus pole subsequently took on a cultural life of its own, adopted by some viewers as the anti-commercial symbol of their anti-holiday spirit.

In the show, Frank Costanza describes the origin of Festivus: “Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had — but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way. … Out of that, a new holiday was born: a Festivus for the rest of us.”

The episode also established the date of Festivus, Dec. 23, and its chief traditions, the airing of grievances and the feats of strength. (Festivus rules dictate that the holiday is complete only when the head of the household is defeated in a wrestling match.)

All of this was comedic invention. Festivus itself, however, was real, and predated the “Seinfeld” episode by more than 30 years. Daniel and Deborah O’Keefe created it in February 1966 to commemorate their first date. In the mid-1970s, they revived it and enriched its lore for their children. Their son Dan grew up, became a screenwriter and eventually co-wrote “The Strike,” warping the lore for maximum laughs.

A secular holiday celebrating family and rejecting commercialism and traditional iconography, the O’Keefe Festivus had unique rituals and traditions, one of which was that it had no fixed date. Formal manners were suspended for the Festivus dinner, which was usually turkey followed by pecan pie. The family members exchanged small gifts, sang silly songs and amused one another by making little Play-Doh sculptures at the table. The symbol of Festivus was not an aluminum pole, but either a clock inside a bag or a clock alongside a bag.